safa · sweep away

What it means

safa (סָפָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sweep away”.

Destroy; perish.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To perish together with others, wiped out.
2. To pile on: sin upon sin.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• add ×4
• be swept away ×4
• sweep away ×4
• lest you be swept away ×2
• I will heap ×1
• are swept away ×1
• being swept away ×1
• one who is swept away ×1
• sweep it away ×1
• who is caught ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×2
• 1 Samuel×3
• 1 Chronicles×1
• Psalms×1
• Proverbs×1
• Isaiah×4
• Jeremiah×2

• Genesis 18:23

  Abraham came near and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

• Genesis 18:24

  Perhaps there are fifty righteous within the city; will you really sweep away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

• Genesis 19:15

  As the dawn came up, the messengers urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city.”

• Genesis 19:17

  When they had brought them outside, he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away.”

• Numbers 16:26

  And he spoke to the community, saying, “Turn away, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and do not touch anything of theirs, lest you be swept away in all their sins.”

• Numbers 32:14

  And look, you have risen in place of your fathers, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning anger of YHWH against Israel.

• Deuteronomy 29:19

  And it happen, when he hears the words of this oath of imprecation, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, “I will have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” so as to sweep away the watered with the thirsty.

• Deuteronomy 32:23

  I will heap on them evils; my arrows I will spend on them.

• 1 Samuel 12:25

  But if you really do evil, both you and your king will be swept away.”

• 1 Samuel 26:10

  David said, “As YHWH lives, surely YHWH will strike him down, or his day will come and he will die, or he will go down into battle and be swept away.

• 1 Samuel 27:1

  David said to his heart, “Now I shall be swept away one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape without fail to the land of the Philistines; then Saul will give up on me, seeking me any longer in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.”

• 1 Chronicles 21:12

  either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your adversaries, with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or three days of the sword of YHWH, that is, pestilence in the land, with the angel of YHWH destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what word I should bring back to the one who sent me.”

• Psalms 40:14

  Let them be ashamed and abashed together, those who seek my soul to sweep it away; let them turn back and be humiliated, those who desire my harm.

• Proverbs 13:23

  Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but there is one who is swept away for lack of justice.

• Isaiah 7:20

  On that day Adonai will shave with a hired razor from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, and it will also sweep away the beard.

• Isaiah 13:15

  Everyone who is found will be pierced through, and everyone who is caught will fall by the sword.

• Isaiah 29:1

  Woe, Ariel, Ariel, town where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts go around.

• Isaiah 30:1

  Woe to the stubborn children, declares YHWH, who make a plan, but not from me, and who pour out a libation, but not of my spirit, so as to add sin to sin;

• Jeremiah 7:21

  Thus says YHWH Tsevaot, the Elohim of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

• Jeremiah 12:4

  How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? Because of the evil of those who dwell in it the animals and the birds are swept away, for they say: “He will not see our end.”